EVERTON'S heroes of the triumphant double winning season of 1985 will be reunited tonight.

A tribute dinner will be held at the Crowne Plaza to raise funds for the club's Football in the Community programme and the Weston Spirit charity.

Almost every member of the 1984/85 league championship and European Cup Winners Cup winning squad will be present.

Graeme Sharp, a key member of the squad and now Everton's Club Liaison Officer, is the man who has gathered together the squad for the first time in 19 years.

He said: "This will be the first time we have been together as a group again.

"We were well known for having a fantastic team spirit and I am sure that will be on show tonight.

"There will be a fantastic atmosphere. It was not too difficult a task to gather everybody together again because they have all been delighted to come along.

"It will be good to see some old faces again, and not just people from the first XI. People like keeper Jim Arnold had a very important role to play for us and it will be great to have him along.

"I have spoken to the lads on the phone and it will be their first chance in quite a while for people like Ian Atkins and Paul Wilkinson to come up here.

"But no matter where they have been coming from, they have all wanted to be here. And that says a lot about the spirit we had back then."

There will be just a handful of absentees. Pat Van den Hauwe now lives in South Africa and is unable to attend, along with Mark Higgins and Kevin Richardson.

The '85 team marched to the first division title, racking up 90 points to leave second-placed Liverpool trailing 13 points behind.

The title was secured with weeks to spare, but the club's exploits in Europe and the FA Cup ensured the season was far from over.

The fightback from a goal down in the second leg of the Cup Winners' Cup semi-final remains one of the greatest nights Goodison has witnessed, setting the side up nicely for their first European trophy.

A 3-1 victory over Rapid Vienna in Rotterdam, with goals from Andy Gray, Kevin Sheedy and Trevor Steven, secured a unique double.

And only an injury-time strike from Manchester United's Norman Whiteside five days later denied Howard Kendall's aching squad the treble.

Tonight will provide that squad with the first opportunity in 19 years to reminisce about the thrilling events of that unforgettable season.